OurFaculty

Prof. Jan Vermorken
(Belgium)

Prof. Jan Vermorken (Belgium)

Jan B. Vermorken was born in 1944, graduated in 1970 from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and became a board-certified specialist in internal medicine in 1975. Since that time he has worked in the field of Medical Oncology and was officially registered as a Medical Oncologist in the Netherlands in 1992. He received his PhD in Medical Sciences in 1986 from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. From May 1997 until October 1, 2009, he was Professor of Oncology at the University of Antwerp (UA), and head of the Department of Medical Oncology at the University Hospital Antwerp (UZA), in Edegem, Belgium. After his retirement he remains connected to both University (emeritus Professor) and University Hospital (consultant).

His main fields of interest are gynecologic oncology, and head and neck oncology. He was founding chair of the Gynecologic Cancer InterGroup (1997-2003), and chaired both the Gynecologic Cancer Group (1983-1989) and Head and Neck Cancer Group (2006-2009) of the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). He devotes a large part of this time to teaching, professional training, and continuing medical education.

Professor Vermorken is member of various scientific societies, member of several editorial boards of International journals, reviewer of multiple cancer journals and author or co-author of more than 600 publications. From January 2009 until January 2014 he was Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Oncology. He is editor of the head and neck cancer section of The Oncologist and Frontiers in Oncology. On March 1, 2013 he received the title of Commander in the Order of Leopold for his contributions to oncology.

Justin Roe BA(Hons), PG.Dip., M.Sc., Ph.D., Cert. MRCSLT

Honorary Lecturer, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London

Joint Head of Speech and Language Therapy, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

Justin is a clinical-academic and service lead, specialising in dysphagia in benign and malignant head and neck disorders. Justin received his first degree, majoring in psychology, in 1993. He qualified as a speech and language therapist in 1999 from City University, London. He was awarded his MSc in dysphagia research with distinction from Newcastle University in 2015 and his PhD from the Institute of Cancer Research in 2013. He has practised at a number of London teaching hospitals. He has worked at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust since 2008 and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust since 2016. He holds an honorary academic appointment within the Department of surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London. He is a Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists Specialist Advisor and chairs their Head and Neck Oncology Clinical Excellence Network.

Alongside his clinical commitments, Justin’s academic work is focused on head and neck oncology, lung cancer and airway stenosis. He is involved in a number of national and multinational cooperative studies. Justin is committed to quality improvement and patient-centred care. He is leading a qualitative study evaluating the rehabilitation needs of patients with advanced lung cancer at RMH. He has completed training in experience-based co-design and is working with quality improvement specialists to deliver on a co-design project with patients being treated for airway stenosis.

As well as being a reviewer for several journals, he has published a number of peer-reviewed papers on head and neck cancer, lung cancer, palliative care, airway stenosis and ethics and spoken at a number of scientific meetings and conferences internationally.

Prof. Mario Fernandez
(Spain)

Prof. Mario Fernandez (Spain)

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Prof. Vinidh Paleri
(UK)

Vinidh Paleri MS FRCS (ORL-HNS)

Consultant Head and Neck Surgeon, The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Honorary Professor of Head and Neck Surgery, Newcastle University

My clinical practice is almost entirely devoted to benign and malignant diseases of the head and neck. I am one of the few surgeons in the United Kingdom with expertise in Transoral Robotic Surgery and Transoral Laser Microsurgery for head and neck cancers. I have accrued the largest experience in transoral robotic surgery in the UK.

My research interests are primarily on the processes of care, decision making and functional outcomes in head and neck oncology. I have published over 170 papers, reviews and book chapters on head and neck oncology. I am chief investigator for the NIHR funded TUBE trial and contribute as co-investigator and principal investigator for several other national trials. Currently, I serve as Chairman of the research council for the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists, and as member of the following national bodies: Head and Neck Cancer Clinical Studies Group of the National Cancer Research Institute, the Interventional Procedures Panel of the National Institute for Health Research and the ENT-UK Head & Neck Society and the Guidelines committee for the 2016 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on Upper aerodigestive tract cancer. I have co-edited the fourth and fifth editions of the UK National Head and Neck Cancer Multidisciplinary Management Guidelines, and also co-edit the section on "Head and Neck Disease" for the forthcoming 8th edition of Scott-Brown's Otolaryngology, the leading multi-volume multi-author textbook in the specialty in the world, planned for publication in July 2018. I am an Associate Editor for Head and Neck, the top ranked journal in the field, Senior Reviews Editor for the Journal of Laryngology and Otology, one of the oldest journals in the field (est. 1887) and serve on the editorial board for the Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology.

Prof. Caesar Piazza
(Italy)

Prof. Caesar Piazza, MD

Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Brescia, Italy. He received his MD degree at the University of Pavia, Italy and he completed his residency programme in Otolaryngology in Brescia.

His clinical and research activities are focused on head and neck oncology, with special emphasis to laryngo-hypopharyngealeal, tracheal, oral oropharyngeal, laser, robotic, and reconstructive microsurgery.

Dr. Piazza is an active member of the European Laryngological Society since 2000 and part of its Scientific Council since September 2010. He is member of the European Board of Examination for Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery since November 2011. He authored or co-authored papers in peer-reviewed journals as well as book chapters. He delivered proffered papers and invited lectures in national and international Congresses and Courses.

Current Opinion in Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery journal the Head and Neck Oncology issue since 2010) and is member of its Editorial Board since 2013. He is member of the Editorial Board of Current Otorhinolaryngology Reports and Frontiers in Oncology – Head and Neck Cancer since 2016.

Prof Brian OSullivan
(Canada)

Prof Brian O'Sullivan

Brian O’Sullivan is a Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology and in the Department of Otolaryngology / Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Toronto. He holds the Bartley-Smith/Wharton Chair in Radiation Oncology in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital. He received his medical degree from the National University of Ireland at University College Dublin in 1976, and completed internship and general internal medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, and a fellowship in medical oncology, and a residency and clinical fellowship in radiation oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital.

Professor O’Sullivan is the immediate past-Chair of the Head and Neck Oncology Committee of the Canadian Clinical Trials Group (CCTG) and current co-Chair of the US NCI Head and Neck Steering Committee of the Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials, CTEP. He is the recipient of numerous international awards such as the O.Harold Warwick Prize, the ESTRO Honorary Membership Award, the Fellow of ASTRO Award, the Juan Del Regato Gold Medal, the Inaugural Stiefel Lectureship and the Gilbert Fletcher Distinguished Professor Lecturer at MD Anderson Cancer Centre, and the Ira Spiro Distinguished Memorial Lecturer Award at Harvard Medical School.

He has published almost 350 peer reviewed papers, more than 50 book chapters, and written or edited 6 oncology textbooks. He is a Commissioner, International Commission on Radiation Units & Measurements (ICRU). He is a member of the TNM Committee of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), Chair of the UICC Prognostic Factors Sub-Committee, Editor-in-Chief of the UICC Manual of Clinical Oncology, and the UICC liaison to the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) for head and neck cancer, and bone and soft tissue sarcoma.

His interests include the biology and clinical behavior of sarcoma and head and neck cancer, cancer staging and prognostic factor, risk stratification and treatment optimization, clinical trial and translational research, quality improvement and global cancer control.